“It’s all go now. After years of discussions, preparations and product development, LED technology is commercially ready. Customers are more informed and discerning with both the efficiency and, increasingly, the light quality they expect from their LED investment,” says Leif Norrby, Product Development Director at Fagerhult.
During the 00s, the lighting industry switched arena from being a standard manufacturing focusing on conventional light sources to part of the electronics industry. Years of standard practice was rapidly transformed, Fagerhult for instance, started producing luminaires for fluorescent tubes in the 1950’s, as the migration from T5 to LED took place in little over a decade.
“We were offered a unique opportunity to use the new, more efficient T5 fluorescent tube which was also smaller. With our innovation-driven corporate culture – Fagerhult has always been open to new technology and materials – it was a challenge not to be missed,” Leif Norrby remembers.
The transition to T5 involved a number of technical lighting considerations.
“The louvre was the main focus. The existing reflector technology, based on double-parabolic louvres made of anodised aluminium, couldn’t benefit from the increased efficiency of T5. That’s why we chose to develop a completely new louvre based on the new light source.”
Fagerhult Beta LED lamellasThe innovative r5 louvre built on a new combination of a side and top reflector in addition to a cross reflector, the latter was the fulcrum for increased control of the light distribution. Using new manufacturing technology and a new metallised aluminium material called Miro, we succeeded in creating an efficient louvre that reinforced the all the benefits of the T5 light source. By using Miro, the reflection factor increased from 86% to 95%.
